Happy New Year!

We had a blessed holiday season. We spent Christmas morning here with the boys and it was magical. They were so happy and excited to see the gifts under the tree. Owen was pleased with all of his gifts, especially his Hot Wheels garage toy that Santa left for him. Jase was excited because Owen was excited, but I don’t think he really understood what was happening. He didn’t know what to make of opening presents but by the end of the day he was getting it well. Owen was so sweet, he thanked us several times for his gifts, and he even shouted into the air, “Thank you, Santa!” It seemed that he was feeling quite grateful and that made us happy. Greg was very generous and gave me a Fitbit this year!! It tracks how many steps I’ve taken, what my heart rate is, the distance I’ve traveled, the calories I've burned and how many flights of stairs I’ve climbed! My main goal is to get 10,000 steps per day plus maintain a good resting heart rate. I wear the Fitbit on my wrist, and the particular model I have is a watch too! It's a very cool fitness tool. About once a day I sync my Fitbit with my iPad and it gives me my daily stats. I'm very competitive with myself so it helps me find ways to fit in a little exercise here and there! Way to go Greg, what a perfect gift for me this year!
We left Christmas afternoon to head up to see our family and we had a nice time. We got to see both sides of our family over the weekend and it was all very relaxed, which was nice. After that weekend, we came home and had a quiet next two weeks. We celebrated NYE in style, asleep in bed :) We recently celebrated our 7 year anniversary! Thankfully our neighbor was available and she watched the boys for us so we could have a little date. We went out to a local restaurant and had brunch. It was so good. The display of food was breathtaking! There was everything from homemade coffee cakes to raw oysters! We took our time eating, enjoyed talking to each other and reflected on our 7 years together. We feel very blessed to have spent the morning together. Last year on our anniversary, I had shingles, Jase had chicken pox and Owen had pink eye! What a difference a year makes!  A few days later we celebrated my birthday, and we had a sitter for that, too! Thank you  Grandmom and Grandpop! We had a nice time that night too; we went to dinner then went to an Irish pub called O’Lordan’s for Greg’s liquid dessert. (Guinness) The pub was so cozy. It was a cold night so it was the perfect place to go since they always have a roaring fire going in their fireplace.
We are settling into 2016 pretty well. Greg has started his semester prep, Owen is back in school and Jase and I are back into our day to day routine. Greg just had some papers accepted into a couple of conferences (yay!) He asked me to go along with him, we’ll see what we can work out for the boys! It will be fun to get away together even if it is just for a few days. Before I even knew about his conferences, I had  been getting the ‘travel bug’ ...an itch to get outta dodge. And with Southwest airlines having such cheap flights… Maybe we’ll travel to see friends and family soon, who knows!

May God grant you and yours many blessings in the coming year!

Christmas preparations

We've certainly been busy, I can't believe that Christmas is just around the corner! We have had our Christmas tree up since the beginning of the month and it has been quite the task keeping the boys away from the ornaments. They are better now, but when the tree first went up Jase (and Owen!) couldn't keep their hands off of them! Thankfully, we bought all shatterproof (aka plastic) ornaments last year so at least the kids were safe when they were playing soccer with them. My friend showed me the cutest ornament idea. You stuff a large clear glass ornament (find at a craft store) with your baby's newborn hat and their ankle tag and hang it on the tree. I love how ours came out! I now have two favorite ornaments!
Greg is finishing up with his final grading, we are all looking forward to some down time with daddy after he completes his work. He's had a very busy semester. From teaching three different classes, doing his research, being an advisor to over 50 students, planning and executing a few events, going to several meetings per week to being a husband and a father, I just don’t know how he did it. Thank goodness this semester is almost behind us. He’s such a hard worker and we are proud of him.
Owen is doing very well in pre-school, and he asks just about every day when he is going to kindergarten. He's very excited to ride the school bus. He has a Christmas concert on Monday at school and then he has a little break until the new year. Jase is doing well; he's sleeping slightly better and he is using more and more words every day. I can't believe that he'll be 21 months on the 1st. I've been taking him to story time at the library every Monday morning while Owen is at school. He is really starting to come out of his shell. It's funny how different he is when Owen isn't around.
As for me, I've been doing my best with the boys. I'm really trying to put them first, instead of all of the things I want to get done around the house. I find that when I can successfully put them first we all have a better day: less frustration, less tantrums and less time outs. There's always time to do one load of laundry here and some dishes there. I'm learning that getting house work done with kids around isn't all or nothing; every little bit counts!
I've been getting to karate a lot more in the past few months and it really feels good to be back in the swing of things. We have a few events coming up in the near future so I am preparing for those and trying to get a women’s team pulled together from our club. I am hopeful that we will be competitive for the spring tournament.
We're looking forward to Christmas and the excitement that it brings. Owen is so excited for Santa to come, and Greg and I are equally excited to see the boys on Christmas morning. We are so very blessed and thankful to have each other and our boys. Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. May God bless you and your family in 2016!

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We had a busy past few weeks! It’s hard to believe that today is December 1st! Around the 15th of November we travelled back to PA to visit my brother, sister and mom to have a pre-thanksgiving dinner. We all had a great time. Mom came up to visit from South Carolina so we were all happy to have a turkey dinner with her before she had to head back home. After she visited with my brother and sister and their families, she came down to see us in MD. The highlight of her visit with us was taking a day trip to the aquarium! We all love it there. The favorite of the day was seeing the Dolphins exercising (doing jumps and flips and of course splashing the audience) in their pool. Mom stayed for a few days then headed back home. It was nice to have her here! After she left, we started prepping for Thanksgiving! We hosted it here. We had my dad and his wife as well as my brother and his family come down. The little boys had a blast playing with each other. The weather was perfect, about 60 and sunny so they even got to play outside! Greg prepped and took care of the turkey this year, and my brother handled most of the other cooking. I sure got lucky this year :) Our dinner was delicious and we all had a great day.  After Thanksgiving, we headed up to New Jersey to celebrate a little cousin’s birthday. It was a lot of driving for one day, but it was worth it to have the boys see their cousins, aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa. We were pretty pooped after Thanksgiving and the travel on Friday that we didn’t do much over the weekend. Now we’re looking forward to Christmas!
Here are some pictures of our recent adventures!

Fun in the leaves!

Shark bait with Memaw

Fruit Turkey courtesy of Grandma Sandy

Yum!

On a prayer

Listen, my son, and be wise,
 and set your heart on the right path.
Proverbs 23:19

Weekend fun!

We had a great weekend! Saturday, of course was Halloween and we had a fun day! We went to our neighbor's house in the afternoon for a little Halloween party that they hosted for their nephew who is in elementary school. Owen loved watching all the big boys play in their costumes. They went bobbing for apples, played a white elephant gift exchange game, and then bingo with candy corn pieces. All of the boys had tons of fun! We went home for a quick dinner and then the boys and Greg went trick or treating around the neighborhood. Owen walked along side Greg as Greg pulled Jase in the red wagon! It worked out well. We have such a great neighborhood, everyone was excited to see the boys. Owen typically doesn't do well for trick or treat. He doesn't like scary masks or anything 'spooky' so he only makes it to about 4-5 houses before he wants to come home. This year was different! He did so well! They started at about 6pm and were back around 6:45pm with lots of goodies. Our neighbors welcomed us back to their place to hand out candy together on their driveway. They had a fire in their fire-pit in the driveway and we circled it with our camping chairs. Once the boys got restless, we headed to the little church across the street from our neighborhood. They had a Harvest party from 6-9pm with food, games, candy and a bouncy house! The boys had a great time and the people there were so nice and welcoming. All in all we had a great time on Saturday. We are so thankful for our wonderful neighbors and community.
We were also thankful for daylight savings coming to an end- it gave us the much needed extra time in the morning to get the family up and to church. After church we came home and Greg worked on the house. He sanded and painted the garage and water proofed the roof on our sun room. The garage door's paint was in dire need of a face lift and the roof in the sun room has been leaking. The last big rainstorm we had was terrible- water was everywhere in the newly renovated room. It was a little heartbreaking. We are hoping that what he did this past weekend has fixed the problem..fingers crossed!
Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Before

During...

After!

Apples for everyone!

We had a great weekend! The weather was beautiful, a little chilly, but beautiful! We spent the day Saturday around the house and getting errands done. We needed to replace the kitchen faucet anyway, and we really needed a new sink, so Greg installed a new kitchen sink and faucet! We are so happy with it, and we are thankful that Greg is so handy.
Sunday we went off to church first thing in the morning. Owen really likes his classroom and Jase is liking it much better! Jase has now been playing with the other toddlers in his classroom and doesn't cry too much when we leave him. After church was lunch and then my dad and his wife came to visit. We spent the rest of the afternoon at a local orchard picking apples. The orchard is so beautiful, the apples are delicious and everyone had such a nice time. Now it's time for apple sauce and apple pie! Yum!

Greg's helpers

Old sink

New sink

Ready for apples!

The boys with Bubby and Grandma Sandy

18 months of Jase

Our baby turned 18 months on October 1st, I can't believe it! He is such a funny guy, he loves to eat, laugh, read books, but most of all he loves to play with (aka torment) his big brother, Owen. Jase has no fear. There have been times when I turn my back for a moment and then find Jase sitting on top of the table. He's quite the climber. He has started the process of potty training on his own. I'm not one to force this issue- really it's too soon for me- but when he tells me he has to go, I'm not going to stop him! He loves to take things and put them back where they don't belong. We've found rubber duckies in our pot and pan cabinets and plates in our bedrooms. He's also been known to throw things away-we've lost a few sippy cups and a veggie peeler because he's thrown them out without us noticing...or maybe we'll find them someplace else one day...

Jase was dedicated last weekend at our church! We are so happy that Greg's parents and my dad and his wife could be there for the service. For those who are unfamiliar with a dedication service, it is a time when parents of a child make a promise to raise their child in a Godly manner, with the intention that someday said child will choose to accept Jesus as their savior. It was a nice service. After the service we went home and had pizza and cake! Thankfully, the boys' cousins met us back at the house after the service. They all had a blast playing!

Here's a rundown of the little man!

Jase loves:

Owen

Milk

Food!

Books

Cows

Building block towers

His lovie 'dog dog' (a blue blanket with a dog attached to it)

Any thing his brother has that he can take

Brook, and all other dogs

Exploring the dirtiest parts of the house when mommy turns her back- the toilet brushes and plungers, the bottoms of the toilets, the trash cans. (I caught him putting his mouth on the kitchen trash can once!)

Thomas the Tank Engine

Singing and dancing

Jase HATES:

Fingernail trimmings (I have to sit on him for him to hold still..it's not pretty)

When we tell him NO!

When he doesn't get what he wants

Sharing

Wiping his nose

Dr visits

The nursery at church...he doesn't hate it, but he holds one lady hostage the entire service. He doesn't let her do anything else but hold him and rock him for an hour. She's glad to do it, really who doesn't love rocking a baby?! The only bad part is he comes home smelling like really strong perfume every Sunday!

We are so blessed to have this little guy in our lives...and he's actually started sleeping better! Thank you, everyone, for your prayers! God is good!

Jase's dedication at Lifepoint Church 

9/26/15